A train of thoughts and writings on development, technology and the economy focusing on the socio-techno-economic-cultural surge of developing economies to regain and partake in leadership of the world. Written by George Easaw. (This is purely an academic site, no commercial use is allowed. Photography rights lie with the respective organisations). Mention credits as needed.

Sunday, May 28, 2006

India Railways under Lalu Prasad Yadav is doing a great job and Prof G Raghuram, Professor , Public Systems, IIM Ahmedabad was preparing for the meeting with the Railways Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.

After the very successful one year of Indian Railways with Lalu Prasad in-charge, IR made impressive progress both on the passenger and freight front. In both the cases, traffic and earnings increased by almost 33 percent. In the period of low fare airlines competing with AC and first class of the IR for long distance travel, Lalu managed to bring down the upper class fares and reduced the second class fares by a nominal one rupee on each ticket. The beauty of Lalu's tenure is that in spite of the reduction in fare, IR did manage to get a profit of Rs. 13,000 crores. Unimaginable !!

It is not that there have been no other sincere and hard working minister for Railways who could give the required leadership and motivation to the staff of IR. We have had great people like Madhu Dandavate and others who managed the Railways Ministry well, but nobody ever could do such wonders or ever attempted !!

An earlier committee constituted by the Union Cabinet, the Rakesh Mohan Committee, of which Prof G Raghuram was a member, had warned the Union Govt to be prepared to pump in Rs. 65,000 crores during the next 10 years to just get the Railways running on the tracks.

We need to look at the scenario from such a grim background. When the management experts in the committee were very sceptical of the functioning of the IR, here comes the wonder man and does the greatest turnaround in the largest organisation in the world. This turnaround could even be classified as one of the greatest turn arounds in commercial history anywhere in the world. And only a person like Lalu Yadav could bring it along.

When the committee headed by Prof G Raghuram went to meet the Railway Minister in his office he offered them a warm welcome. On receiving the pat from the experts on the turn around of the IR, Lalu was as quiet as ever. He just attributed it to the hard work and the sincerity of the railway employees.

When Prof Raghuram offered him help to set up a committee which could advise the Minister on matters of technical and business interests, the Minister politely denied (rather rebuffed) the request, saying that he already has enough experts with him who can manage the Ministry well and does not need any help from outside.

It was a superb and masterly stroke from a great leader, who in one statement raised the morale of the entire working force in the IR. They will now be more devoted and sincere in their approach to the Minister and will never belie the faith he has placed on them.

India definitely needs such great leaders and politicians. Eventhough Lalu has another side which is slightly uncomfortable for him, his contribution to the IR will be remembered for a long time to come. A unbelievable feat which will be difficult to replicate by anybody anywhere else in the world.

Another case at point is the successful construction and commissioning of the world's most modern metro railway in Delhi under the able leadership of it's MD, E Sridharan. A true technocrat, this is another feather in his cap, having been respsonsible for successfully commissioning the Calcutta Metro and Konkan Railway earlier.

The two people are the rare gems one can find in society once in a while. And we need to give them our full support and accolades in achieving some humanly impossible feats !

Saturday, May 27, 2006

This was a writing I did in September 2004. I thought reproducing it would be apt given the popularity of the Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav ..

Laloo - The Common Man's Minister ..

Laloo Prasad Yadav is slowly emerging as the hero of IndianDemocracy. The man of the people. But there are some whomay differ, who inspite of being after his blood all thepast five years had to return empty handed, only to see himreturn to Parliament emboldened with not only better votesand seats for his party, but also in the central cabinetholding powerful portfolios. He sure seems to be Manmohan'starget man to get the opposition behave the way it should.

Some of his actions have been admirable and timely.

Replacing plastic cups for Khulhar(earthen pots) was such apopular exercise, that it earned immediate recognition andsupport among the masses and conveyed that he meantbusiness right from day one. Serious business. Getting allupholstery from the handicrafts sector, he has given asecond life to the neglected and poverty stricken artisansand weavers. An attempt to identify with theunderpriviledged and downtrodden in the society.

He is no doubt a man of the masses, the style and manner inwhich he stopped a goods train in Bihar to check its goodswas something no other Railway Minister has done so far anddare not attempt too. By that acion he has conveyed that hecan be strict at times too.

Ordering a Railway Enquiry into the reason behind theGodhra train burning and asking the Committee to fixresponsibility on the concerned Railway Officials and topropose ways and means to avoid such incidents in thefuture was no doubt a masterly stroke. Many skeletons willfall from the cupboard for sure. Surely the common man'smost important concern in rail travel. The day theannouncement was made after a cabinet meeting, the mannerin which Laloo stuck to his ground holding the card closeto his chest even after repeated cross questioning byRajdeep Sardessai in the X-factor programme on NDTV wasamazing.

Second was the tainted minster issue over the fodder scamfor which he has been constantly opposed by the BJP.Whether one is accused of swindling crores of rupees and iselected by a vast majority by the people or one swayscommunal frenzy and lets loose mob psyche by fieryspeeches, leading to the killing of innocents and againgetting elected to the Parliament, a criminal remains acriminal. As the PM has remarked, criminals cannot be oftwo classes, there has to be political understanding ofwhat constitues criminal behaviour and whether a criminalgetting peoples mandate can take a position of authority ingovernment.

Third salvo was fired just days back, asking the LeiberhannCommission probing the events that led to the Babri Masjiddemolition in 1992, to probe the role of Advani, Joshi andUma Bharati by asking the Time Reporters Anita Pratap andher cameraman to testify before the judge as to whattranspired at the demolition time in Ayodhya. An eventwhich has sent shivers down the spine of the BJP leadershipand which has made them to immediately go into defensivemode contemplating what bullet will come next from the gunof this totally unbeatable man of the masses.

With the top league Universities of the world queueing forappointments to get him talk at their universities onpublic governance and even Bollywood eager to get some ofhis glamour and glory, Laloo is now ruling at the top ofthe popularity charts.

The BJP has understood that it was playing with fire whenit tried its level best some years back to get him arrestedand put him behind bars. Laloo is taking his revenge at hissweet pleasure and leisure. Each time he gets to speak,there are lots of people eagerly watching the movement ofhis lips. And the BJP leadership already its back againstthe wall for the destructive role it has been playing asthe opposition and earning the ire of the media and thecommon man in the country is getting nervous day by day,not knowing what this minister is upto next. It isdumbstruck, how to silence him before he drops the nextbomb.

Friday, May 12, 2006

the people's wish, needs to be respected. Can we say with certainty that UDF will come back next time ? Not forgetting the drubbing the same LDF got from UDF last timeafter leaving the treasury bankrupt with almost rs. 36000 crores in debt. Now it is reversed.

Issues much dearer than Smartcities and expressways need to be handled by the new Govt.. How will they be able to solve the acute unemployment problem in the state, will they be a silent witness toKerala once again missing the chance to get on the IT superhighway ? Will Kerala once again fall behind in providing the right infrastructure and climate for industrial houses to set up shop in Kerala ?

Will the Left learn from the WB Left who have no qualms inviting FDI in the state ? They are even vying to get Walmart, world's largest retailer open shop in Kolkata.

How the LDF is going to lead the state the next five years, provide employment, infrastructure, invite investments into the state, drain the treasury with welfare activities, allneeds to be seen eagerly.

The Kerala people have again demonstrated that communalists and opportunists have no say in Kerala.

After all, people's infinite wisdom and verdict are to be respected. And there lies the success of a democracy.